‘I didn’t trust him. But I was curious about him’: how I made friends with my scammer
Listen, 2020 wasn’t my best year. I spent a lot of time in my bathtub – actually, a large clear storage tub in the bottom of my shower – eating bread I certainly didn’t make, and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Clear plastic, I discovered to my horror, is a material that fares best when it doesn’t have your flesh pressed right up against it. So I made a healthy decision to buy some workout equipment online and slowly wean myself off bathtime.
Looking on Facebook Marketplace, I found a pilates reformer, a sort of bed on rails, a lie-down trampoline, with resistance straps for your arms and legs. They are usually very expensive – at least A$2,000 (£1,560) – but this one was listed for A$500. Absolute bargain! The seller was a man named Jacob (not his real name) in Adelaide, thousands of kilometres away from me in Melbourne, and certainly beyond the 5km radius the lockdown allowed us to travel. No matter – he would courier it. Legend!
Jacob looked like the kind of guy you’d warn your friend not to date. His profile revealed lots of pictures of him partying with his mates, trips to Bali, nights out at the casino with the lads, lads, lads! He sold me the pilates reformer and he used his own profile with his real name. This was a public profile that was 10 years
